In an electric connector of the kind mentioned above is described, for instance in a Patent Document 1. In this known connector, a rear holder is detachably provided at a rear portion of a housing, said rear holder being driven into a temporarily engaged position in which the rear holder is halfway inserted into the housing as well as into a finally engaged position in which the rear holder is fully inserted into the housing. If the rear holder is fit into the housing after all the necessary connecting terminals have been installed within the housing, it is necessary to pass electric wires having one ends connected to respective connecting terminals through the rear holder. It is apparent that this assembling operation is very cumbersome. Contrary to this, the assembling operation could be performed efficiently by inserting the connecting terminals and electric wires connected to the connecting terminals are inserted into the housing through the rear holder positioned at the temporarily engaged position.
It has been also known to provide locking lances for locking the connecting terminals installed within the housing at the rear holder which is separately provided from the housing. In such a connector, the locking lances could be formed by molding and the connector could be less expensive, because the locking lances which has to be made of an expensive material having a relatively high durability could be provided in the rear holder having a small size or volume.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Kokai Hei 8-321344